General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: University of Chicago Tells Incoming Students: Don't Expect Safe Spaces or Trigger Warnings [View all]Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)harassment or bullying, but rather the free and open exchange of ideas and the principle of free expression.
Peoples' feelings should be respected, to be sure, but that shouldn't extend to censorship.
I suspect the undertone comes more from the spin of the article about the letter, than the letter itself. Also, I think the conversation could be handled better without knee-jerking on all sides, along with crisp definitions; like, is a "safe space" a group for LGBT students and their allies, where they don't want homophobes and fundamentalists in their meeting room, yelling at them while they try to hold their meetings? That, to my mind, is a legit use of the concept.
If a "safe space" is taken as "The entire campus needs to be protected from Bill Maher because he said dumb things about Muslims or Vaccines, once" -- that's different.